1992 Coalisland riots

The 1992 Coalisland riots were a series of clashes on 12 and 17 May 1992 between local Irish nationalist civilians and British Army soldiers (of the Third Battalion of the Parachute Regiment and the King's Own Scottish Borderers) in the town of Coalisland, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The Third Battalion 1992 tour's codename was "Operation Gypsy".

Provisional IRA attack

On 12 May 1992, a unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) East Tyrone Brigade launched a bomb attack on a British Army foot patrol near the republican stronghold of Cappagh, County Tyrone. One soldier of the Parachute Regiment, Alistair Hodgson, lost both legs as a result. The improvised landmine was described in an IRA statement as an "anti-personnel device". Other paratroopers received lesser wounds, according to the same statement. The incident triggered a rampage by members of the Parachute Regiment in the nearby, overwhelmingly Irish nationalist town of Coalisland, some ten miles to the east. The IRA attack was described as a "provocation" tactic, devised to produce an over-reaction by troops to make them even more unpopular among local nationalists.

The deployment of the paratroopers, which began in April had already been criticised by republican activist and former Member of Parliament Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, who denounced beatings, shootings and damages to property reportedly carried out by the troops. These previous incidents included the destruction of fishing gear and boats in the townland of Kinturk, near Ardboe, and a brawl on 22 April between soldiers and motorists at a checkpoint in Stewartstown, in which plastic bullets were fired that ended with a civilian and two paratroopers wounded.